‘Beer summit’ held as Connecticut’s craft brewers and distributors wrangle over sales limits

Craft beer in cans and bottles. Craft brewers and beer distributors in Connecticut are in conflict over a proposed increase in how much beer breweries can sell to customers for off-site consumption. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

With a proposed bill that would more than double the amount of beer craft brewers can sell directly to customers for off-site consumption heading for a public hearing, brewers and beer distributors held a closed door meeting to try to iron out ongoing concerns.

The “beer summit” was the beginning of what both sides say they expect to be an ongoing conversation aimed at meeting the needs and wants of both brewers and wholesalers.

Eric Felardi, third generation owner of F & F Distributors in New London, was among those who attended the meeting held at Hartford Distributors in Manchester.

Felardi, who grew up in the business, working after school and during the summer before becoming full-time about 28 years ago, said the distribution business has changed over time.

“People would say 'the only thing I need to sell is Budweiser and Marlboros,” Felardi said,

But that, he said, began to change with the arrival of Samuel Adams and the “better beer” movement about 25 years ago.

In recent years that trend toward higher-end beer consumption continued to grow as the craft beer industry in Connecticut grew from a handful of breweries in 2012 to about 85 today.

But some of those breweries are small and their owners want to be able to sell more than the nine liters — which equals 19 sixteen-ounce cans of beer — to a customer per day. Legislation proposed by state Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, would allow for the sale of up to 23 liters — or more than two cases of 16-ounce cans — per person, per day.

Curt Cameron, owner of Hooker Brewing Co. in Bloomfield, said that because 95 percent of his product goes through wholesalers and retail establishments he supports the concepts of limits to help maintain the three-tier system.

But he added that direct sales are much more important to smaller operations who don’t distribute and that limiting sales to 19 cans per person “is kind of silly, especially since surrounding states have no limits.”

Increasing those limits, Cameron said, will allow the smaller brewers to reinvest in their businesses and grow to the point that distribution becomes attractive.

Felardi, who contends that if smaller breweries give him 20 cases of their beer to distribute it results in 20 new placements in the market, is hopeful that a compromise can be reached that benefits everyone.

“There’s enough out there for everyone to work together,” he said.

In a statement released Friday, Phil Pappas, executive director of the Connecticut Brewers Guild; Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association; Jude Malone, executive director of the Connecticut Beer Wholesalers Association; and Ross Hollander, CEO of Hartford Distributors, said the two groups plan to meet again with a smaller group from each industry to look more closely at the issues they face.

“We’ll meet as often as necessary, with one governing philosophy — not to let disagreements in some areas prevent us from finding commonality in others,” they said in the statement. “Through regular discussions, we hope to find solutions that allow the whole system to grow and thrive.”

Witkos’ bill, which also includes a provision allowing distilleries to increase the amount of liquor they can sell for off-site consumption from half a liter to three liters per day, will go to a public hearing Thursday at 10 a.m. at the state Capitol.